First Night Landing (or Smooth, Lars)
by imsarahschreck
Summary: Lars has returned home from space, the second party to crash Sadie Killer and the Suspects' beach gig of the week. Sadie and Lars may have a lot to catch up on, but where do they begin? A sweet little night of snapshots, complete with some sweet treats.


For one moment, it was a normal night on the beach for Sadie. That is to say, the new kind of normal, where Sadie helped Sour Cream unplug and safely pack away his boards. A normal kind of night where she, Buck, and Jenny took pressurized cans of air to all of their new (but used) equipment to really get the sand out.

Sadie enjoyed doing that kind of work, the hands-on tasks, the literal nitty gritty. It let her mind wander a bit as everything fell back into place into cases and cars. Everything had its place to return to. It reminded her a bit of the old normal, of wiping down counters and restocking the –

"Hey, do you mind if I – " Sadie barely had time to gesture before Jenny cut in.

"Oh my god we were wondering why you were still here!"

"He needs you, Sadie. It's a rescue mission." Sadie must have made a face at Buck's dramatic statement, because Sour Cream quickly explained how Ronaldo hadn't let Lars out of his sight the entire concert.

"Thanks. Okay. I'll see you back at – well I don't know if – "

"Just text us later, Sadie, gosh! Go! Get out of here!" Jenny's voice was already fading as Sadie steadied her breathing and jogged to the edge of town.

* * *

"Hey again."

"Hey. Again."

Eye contact was hard. Why was eye contact so hard? You so desperately want to see someone for so long, and once they're there, you find you can't look at them at all. Not his pink skin, not her green hair. Her eyes were fixed on the edges of his cape; his on her cherry pin.

"You, uh, really captured how it felt to work at the Big D," Lars offered, rubbing his neck. Sadie giggled. Nobody called it that except him. "I guess I'll start picking up shifts again soon. We can both kinda be, like, undead again, together."

"You're on your own buddy, I quit a while back. When you left."

"Oh right, duh, Steven told me. I knew that." They found it difficult to move. After months and months of planning, of imagining a parachute from the ship, a dedicated song, a wordless walk on the beach, they couldn't figure out anything better to do than to just stand there.

Sadie began to pull her eyes up toward his. It was quite a long way up, given their height difference, and her hair had fallen in her face. She tucked some of her bangs behind her ear so she could see him clearly. There he was.

Lars wasn't sure if Sadie could hear how just tucking some hair behind her ear made him breathe a sigh of relief. She was just as nervous as he was. He followed her hand to her arm, her arm to her shoulder and her shoulder to her face. There she was.

"I heard Ronaldo was quite fascinated with your getup, huh?" Lars' brief smile melted into an eye roll, and the eye roll melted into a head roll.

"Oh my _god_ it's like, dude, I get it, I'm pink, but I just got home. I don't want to talk about your dumb _theories_, I don't want to talk about _dying,_ I just want to hear the girl I came back to - this stupid planet, uh, for, sing a song about a job we used to suffer doing, you know?"

Smooth, Lars.

He hadn't blushed since he had changed, but tripping over those words, he felt a little more neon than normal. He wished he could go back into the atmosphere, turn back around, and try again.

Sadie extended her hand – the hand that had filed away napkins, that had wielded a spear for his safety, the one that had reached out to him during the Beach City abductions. All he had wanted to do from lightyears away was hold her hand. So he took it.

"Let's walk."

* * *

"Where are your folks? I saw they were at the concert." Sadie sat in the big green armchair, very much on the edge, while Lars tossed hiss gloves and cape to the floor. "I thought they'd pretty much be all over you tonight."

"Yeah, well, I skipped out during Sour Cream's solo and talked to them for a while. They're out to dinner with some of the other folks in town. And they said they wanted to stay with my grandparents, just tonight, and they'll drive in tomorrow. They kind of knew that tonight I'd want – some space."

It took a few seconds, but Sadie began to giggle, and that started Lars, and soon enough they were enjoying the sound of harmonizing cackles and chuckles. It went on longer than the pun deserved.

"Do you mind if I change?" Sadie covered her eyes with her hands. "That's a total Steven move, come on." Sadie kept giggling.

"How long were you even in that? Where did you find clothes in space? I can't find clothes I like on me in stores! And you found a cape?" She could hear the rustling of clothes and the scraping of wood drawers on a wood cabinet. His room had been left mostly untouched since his parents knew he was on his way home. She thought for a moment if maybe it would have always stayed like this, even if he had failed to come back.

"Sadie. I've been dressed for like, ages. You can look." Instead of lifting her head, it collapsed into her hands, her elbows resting on her thighs. She felt the seat beneath her. She took a few deep breaths. And she looked up to see him standing right in his room, wearing ripped jeans and a plain black shirt. It wasn't anything special, but something was different about his posture.

"Your eyes are all red."

"Yeah, well, you're pink."

"Yeah, I am." Lars decided to sit on the bed, facing her. "I'm also really sorry. I wish I had been more like the person you thought I was." This time it was him, who extended a hand. Albeit, one that was shaking, just a little. With everything they both had planned on saying, they could only sit there. They could feel how late it was. Once in a while, they felt the trembling of the ground beneath them as Steven's new allies walked around Beach City. And yet, nothing felt bigger than the silence between them.

"You haven't asked about all this," Lars finally said. "If you want to know what happened." He didn't expect the offer to set her off, but Sadie squeezed his hand in response.

"You know, it's so weird? When we worked together - I've spent day after day with you for the last – I don't know how long. I've been with you during all sorts of things. You were with me too. We got to see each other's big moments. And – I guess I'm – When I trapped us on the island, I thought it would help."

"It did. Kind of."

"Yeah, well. Sure. I saw you changing at work, like, growing, just a little bit every day. And I thought maybe I was helping somehow. Maybe I could be a part of it, a part of your life. And I'm not trying to sound like my mom here, but I – Well, I don't know. You've had this whole big change and I missed it. I wasn't there to see it."

The silence steadily grew as they looked at each others' hands. Sadie couldn't imagine what Lars was thinking. She decided breaking the tension was the best she could do.

"I'm sorry, that was so stupid, I sound just like my mom. It's not like you're here to comfort me when you're the one coming back! Let's talk about it!"

"Sadie?"

"Yeah?"

"...I want to bake something."

* * *

"Dude, this is the best!" Lars was beaming as he sifted through the pantry. "Hell yeah, nonperishables!"

"You're a nonperishable." Sadie had hardly gotten down the stairs, and she saw his wiry frame pulling out cans, bags, and small boxes, stacking them haphazardly on the counter. "Steven said you don't really eat anymore though, why do you want – "

"I totally _can_ I just don't need to! Like, you see Amethyst eat all the time. I just have better taste." Sadie was happy to be laughing in his house again.

"Okay, good. I thought I had learned about your secret baking hobby just in time for it to be completely useless!"

"But it wouldn't be useless. Even if I couldn't bake for myself, I could bake for –" She looked up to see him scouring the label of some white flaky something-or-other. "Do you think – no. Nevermind. It'll take too long. Can you see if we have stuff I could use in the fridge?" Sadie shook her head. He comes back from space to _bake_. He hasn't even talked to his parents, not really. How could he have hidden his love for baking for so long?

"Looks like you've got eggs, cream cheese, some soy milk… what else is used for –"

"Butter?"

"Oh jeez, yes, butter- Margarine I think."

"Wait wait wait. Did you say soy milk?"

"Yeah?" Lars just grumbled in response. Something about his mother and alternative diets. This grumble quickly crescendoed into elation as he emerged with a teeny tiny can in his hands.

"Cream of coconut, oooh baby how I missed you!" He cradled it against his face like a baby bird. Sadie noticed how his hands seemed a bit brighter where they pressed up against the can. She had almost forgotten his change in color. Things were starting to feel normal again. He was joking, she was helping, they were together again. Maybe it was different… maybe it wasn't. Despite all the new confidence, they had fallen back in so quickly, so easily. Maybe that meant things hadn't changed at all.

"Should I give you some alone time with the coconut?"

"No way. This can means that we're gonna make Bibingka, and you're gonna want to stick around for that."

After a night of awkward hellos, Lars finally knew what he needed with Sadie. He needed a little time, a little bit of breathing room. He wanted to feel at home, which is exactly how he felt preheating his parent's oven. Preheating an oven means something good is about to happen. For the first time, in Beach City, he really believed that something great was about to happen.

"With the oven lights, you look kinda like an evil – something," said Sadie, through a yawn. "Like, being lit from below. Grinning evilly." She was grinning too. "I could write about an evil baker. Go dark Hansel and Gretel. That'd be pretty sweet."

"Do you know how to cream together cream cheese and sugar?" Sadie shook her head. All the years in the doughnut biz hadn't taught her much of substance.

Lars pulled out a large bowl, measured some ingredients and took out a large spatula. It rested, along with Sadie, on the counter. She was humming some unfamilliar melody, already working away at the fairy-tale tune. Lars softened butter in the microwave. _This could have all been a dream in the morning_, he thought, as he watched the small bowl spin slowly in the yellow light. He hoped the Off-Colors felt at home with Steven and Garnet for the night. After all, they knew what he had to do, too.

"Look at you go," she threw at him with a smile, singing it along with the new melody.

"Okay, Sadie." Lars plopped the cream cheese into the bowl, and handed her the spatula.

"You're really gonna make me do work on the day you get back. At midnight."

"All you gotta do is mix this cream cheese until it's smooth, and we gradually add the sugar and keep smoothing it out. Stirring it." Sadie sensed he was up to something. While she stirred, he meticulously collected everything else they needed.

"So this is a cake?"

"A thin kinda sticky cake. You'll see."

"I think you can start adding some sugar." Lars peered into the bowl and placed a hand on Sadie's head.

"I think I ought to call you sous-chef instead of Player Two now, huh?" Sadie blushed in response, completely caught off-guard in her sleepy state. She didn't even know he remembered about Player Two.

"Okay, okay, we'll keep Player Two. I still owe you for standing in line for me." He began to add some sugar, standing just behind her, eyes ever present on the bowl. She was stirring slightly slower as he added more sugar, unsure of what to say. "Need a break?"

"No, I'm fine – " Before she knew it, Lars had reached around her, grabbing the bowl in one hand, and her spatula-holding hand in the other. Sadie didn't know whether to laugh or smack him. What a ridiculous, over-the-top…

Smooth, Lars.

"What? What are you laughing at? I thought I was pretty smooth about it." Sadie shook her head in embarrassment. Lars felt her hair against his face. How funny that her hair smelled the same, no matter the color. He wondered if that went for himself, as well. He stepped closer, his chin nearly on top of her head. "Is this okay?"

"Yeah." They mixed the sugar crystals as they disappeared into the mixture, one by one. This was not like Lars. Sadie was always the straight man, handling his many moods. All of a sudden, he was confidently controlling their conversation, and she was the one on edge.

"You think you missed out?" Lars was suddenly speaking in her ear.

"Huh?"

"You think you missed out on watching me grow up."

"Oh yeah, that."

"Do you really think you weren't there?" He could feel Sadie's hand go a little limp under his. "Technically you weren't there, but – that was because _I _wasn't _here. _I'm the one that made the mistake in the first place, Sadie. I should have been here this whole time. And you've been here, doing your own thing. You grew without me, too." Together, they set the bowl and spatula down, as Lars took both of Sadie's hands in his from behind. "But you were there with me the entire time."

The oven beeped. "Oh will you _shut up_? I was having a _moment!"_

Sadie took the distraction as an opportunity to spin around and squeeze Lars tight. He could hear her, muffled in his shirt, "that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard out of your dumb mouth." But she didn't move for quite some time.

* * *

The Bibingka was unceremoniously shoved into the oven (much in the same way that Lars had shoved the electric no-hands-needed mixer deeper in to the pantry). Sadie promised Lars that they could check on it in half an hour, but she didn't want to accidentally fall asleep on the kitchen tile and suggested they move back to his bedroom – or the couch, at least.

"Do you not need to sleep?"

"Don't need to, but I'm still a fan. Up we go." They lay down beside each other, on their regular video-gaming sides. Funny how familiar things can be, when everything is so different.

They both knew what was bound to happen, and both wanted to delay it as much as possible. Why? Who's to say. Maybe because once it started, it was no longer under their control. They knew who they were before, and now, they didn't know what happened next.

They turned to face each other. He smirked at how her face kinda squashed against his bed, and the way her hair poofed around her shoulders. She was visually tracing the scar on his eye, trying to imagine what had happened, knowing she'd never see his old face again. She pulled him closer, nesting her head beneath his. Nothing incriminating, nothing risky, just close.

Lars wasn't good with _feelings_. He had come to accept this about himself. He didn't really know how to express how he felt, he didn't know how to ask for help, he didn't ever care to find out. Life had always worked out for him by being that way. And then, day by day, in the most miserable job, in a tiny nowhere town, she had walked around in his mind, past all his silly walls and dumb jokes. She had always been there helping him. And now she was holding him.

It had been too quiet, and Sadie decided to break the tension. "So are we gonna kiss, or what," joked Sadie as she pulled away. Lars was crying.

"Oh my gosh Lars, what-" He just pulled her back into him. Gone was the suave plan-making baker. He couldn't put on any front, any smooth outer layer. He had come back to himself, in his t-shirt and jeans, in his home in Beach City, with Sadie.

"I can't – breathe – Leremy –" He apologized and rolled away, and she sat up on her knees, shaking off the sleepy, cuddly lull that had predated her suffocation.

"Sorry," he said through some tiny shudders. "I just realized I'm back, you know?"

"Welcome home." She leaned over and kissed him, simply and plainly, and perfectly.

* * *

The Bibingka was perfect. They ate directly out of the tray with spoons, potholders protecting their laps as they filled each other in on their adventures and discoveries. Once in a while, they would fall silent and fall together, giggling and rolling their eyes at their own silly feelings. This wasn't like them, and this was exactly like them. Things were the same, and different, and complicated. Needless to say, the night sped by.

"I have a lot to figure out about what I am now," said Lars, as he saw the moon start to set. No more stars, it was finally time for daylight.

"Oh yeah?" Sadie was all but asleep on the floor next to his bed, her head leaning back on the armchair. She hadn't pulled an all-nighter like this in a long time, and was gleefully delirious. "I mean you're totally my b- huh huh – boyfriend now, so –"

"Trust me, that part I've got figured out." His eyes didn't leave the window.

"Hm. That's nice. Hey. You know I wrote a song about you?"

"That's ridiculous."

"IIIIII did. Me. Wrote a song. Abouuuut you."

"I'd like to hear it sometime."

"I'll sing it for you. I just need – to wake up –" Sadie started humming again. He recognized it as the melody she had hummed back in the kitchen.

"Not now. You gotta sleep."

He lifted Sadie up, and tucked her in as best he could. It made him feel older. He walked to the window to see his first blue sky in… forever. He had been abducted in the dark and arrived back home in the dark. He was ready for something new. But looking into the fading black sky, he heard a rustle in his bed.

Sadie had pulled his cape off of the ground and pulled it around her shoulders, hugging it tight.

He figured the sun could wait, and gently crept onto the other side of the bed to sleep his first day on Earth away.

Smooth, Lars.


End file.
